The tour to Portugal, for the 2025 NATO Tiger Meet, started on Tuesday 23 September 2025. The 4Aviation group totalled 32 people. Of these 32, 13 opted to fly from and to Amsterdam-Schiphol, 11 chose to fly from/to Eindhoven while the remaining 8 had arranged their own flights to Lisbon.
With the flights from Amsterdam and Eindhoven both departing at 07.00, it was an early start for many. After arriving in Lisbon, the remaining participants were met (besides one, that saw his original flight cancelled, therefore arriving later than planned). The process of collecting the rental cars took its time, more the rule than the exception unfortunately.
The original plan was to visit the spotters day on Wednesday (24 September) and the open day on Saturday (27 September). After the first ‘issue’ (with only 100 photographers being allowed to visit the spotters day), the next change was that the open day was cancelled. Thanks to the willingness of the Portuguese, we were able to tackle the first ‘issue’. The cancellation of the open day called for the flexibility 4Aviation is known for. All participants were offered the option to return home on Saturday instead of Sunday. In the end 8 of the 32 decided to go home early.
In bright sunshine, we drove from Lisbon airport to Beja Air Base. Arriving there early afternoon, we were happy to see that the favourable runway was in use. So, we ended up enjoying a rather big wave of Tiger Meet participants that first afternoon.
After the return of the last aircraft (more or less), it was time to head for our hotel(s). Due to the group size, we had to book rooms in two different hotels in Moura. While the check-in at one of the two hotels was far from smooth (customer isn’t always king apparently 😉 ), the rest of the evening went according to plan; enjoying good food and drinks in good company.
